To Protect or Not to Protect: Red Wings Expansion Draft Series

[LastWordArmy]

Welcome to a new summer series on Last Word On Hockey. In preparation for the NHL Expansion Draft on June 21st, LWOH’s Detroit Red Wings Department will be going in depth on every Wing that is eligible to be picked by the newest NHL squad, the Vegas Golden Knights, who will begin play in the fall. The team will likely follow the seven-forward, three-defensemen, and one goalie format of protecting players, and this series will follow suit with that. For a brush-up on the expansion draft rules, click this link.

So Far

Henrik Zetterberg
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/05/25/detroit-red-wings-henrik-zetterberg/

Mike Green
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/05/26/detroit-red-wings-protect-not-protect-mike-green/

Justin Abdelkader
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/05/27/10105/

Niklas Kronwall
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/05/28/detroit-red-wings-protect-not-protect-niklas-kronwall/

Darren Helm
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/05/30/detroit-red-wings-protect-or-not-to-protect-darren-helm/

Danny DeKeyser
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/05/31/detroit-red-wings-protect-danny-dekeyser/

Frans Nielsen
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/06/01/detroit-red-wings-protect-not-protect-frans-nielsen/

Jonathan Ericsson
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/06/02/detroit-red-wings-protect-not-protect-jonathan-ericsson/

Gustav Nyquist
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/06/03/detroit-red-wings-gustav-nyquist/

Xavier Ouellet
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/06/05/detroit-red-wings-xavier-ouellet/

Tomas Tatar
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/06/06/detroit-red-wings-tomas-tatar/

Nick Jensen
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/06/07/detroit-red-wings-protect-or-not-to-protect-nick-jensen/

Anthony Mantha
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/06/08/detroit-red-wings-anthony-mantha/

Andreas Athanasiou
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/06/09/detroit-red-wings-andreas-athanasiou/

The Final Forward
http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/06/13/detroit-red-wings-protect-not-protect-seventh-forward-bubble/

Click to read more...

 

[Vatican Roulette]

So far, not a bad read.

 

[razor ray]

Make anyone over 30 that you can make available...available.

 

[Number1RedWingsFan52]

This is how i could see the Red Wings protection list looking like, Still depends on the moves that Holland makes before the expansion draft though.

7 protected forwards

1) Henrik Zetterberg.
2) Franz Nielsen (NMC)
3) Gustav Nyquist.
4) Tomas Tatar.
5) Anthony Mantha.
6) Andreas Athanasiou.
7) Justin Abdelkader

Fowards that could be exposed

1) Riley Sheahan
2) Luke Glendening.
3) Darren Helm.
4) Tomas Nosek.
5) Martin Frk

3 Defenseman that will be protected.

1) Danny DeKeyser.
2) Mike Green.

3) Xaviar Ouellet or Nick Jensen it's a toss up here.

Exposed Defenseman.

1)Niklas Kronwall.
2) Jonathon Ericsson.
3) Ryan Sproul.
4) one of either Xavier Ouellet or Nick Jensen depending on whom Holland decides to protect.

Goaltender to protect.

1) Petr Mrazek

Exposed Goaltenders Howard and Coreau.

Goaltenders could be hard does Holland try and trade Mrazek and protect Howard instead stay tuned.

 

[PelagicJoe]

Who is exempt from the draft besides Larkin?

 

[golffuul]

I would have thought Mantha is....but apparently not

 

[Number1RedWingsFan52]

Who is exempt from the draft besides Larkin?

I believe both Bertuzzi and Russo are exempt of course Svechnikov would be as well not sure of the others.

 

[Wood Stick]

Who is exempt from the draft besides Larkin?

Grand Rapids guys only really like Tyler Bertuzzi and Robbie Russo. Larkin is the only every day Wing that is exempt to the best of my knowledge.

 

[Number1RedWingsFan52]

Mantha for sure

Nope both Mantha and Athanasiou need to be protected.

 

[golffuul]

Nope both Mantha and Athanasiou need to be protected.

Yeah...I checked Cap Friendly and edited my thing. According to Cap Friendly...these are the players exempt:

INJ Franzen, Johan 37 RW $3,954,545 UFA (2020)
Larkin, Dylan 20 C $925,000 RFA (2018)
Sadowy, Dylan 21 LW $880,833 RFA (2019)
Svechnikov, Evgeny 20 LW $863,333 RFA (2020)
Ehn, Christoffer 21 C $759,167 RFA (2020)
Smith, Givani 19 LW $728,333 RFA (2020)
Holmström, Axel 20 C $686,667 RFA (2019)
Turgeon, Dominic 21 C $686,667 RFA (2019)
Bertuzzi, Tyler 22 LW $661,667 RFA (2018)
Nastasiuk, Zach 22 RW $647,500 RFA (2018)
Lorito, Matt 26 LW $637,500 UFA (2018)
INJ Vitale, Joe 31 C $0 UFA (2017)
Cholowski, Dennis 19 D $925,000 RFA (2020)
Sulak, Libor 23 D $833,750 RFA (2019)
Renouf, Daniel 22 D $767,500 RFA (2018)
Hronek, Filip 19 D $728,333 RFA (2020)
Saarijärvi, Vili 20 D $697,500 RFA (2020)
Hicketts, Joe 21 D $635,000 RFA (2019)
Russo, Robbie 24 D $0 RFA (2017)
Machovsky, Matej 23 G $742,500 RFA (2018)
Paterson, Jake

 

[Oddbob]

Yeah...I checked Cap Friendly and edited my thing. According to Cap Friendly...these are the players exempt:

INJ Franzen, Johan 37 RW $3,954,545 UFA (2020)
Larkin, Dylan 20 C $925,000 RFA (2018)
Sadowy, Dylan 21 LW $880,833 RFA (2019)
Svechnikov, Evgeny 20 LW $863,333 RFA (2020)
Ehn, Christoffer 21 C $759,167 RFA (2020)
Smith, Givani 19 LW $728,333 RFA (2020)
Holmstrom, Axel 20 C $686,667 RFA (2019)
Turgeon, Dominic 21 C $686,667 RFA (2019)
Bertuzzi, Tyler 22 LW $661,667 RFA (2018)
Nastasiuk, Zach 22 RW $647,500 RFA (2018)
Lorito, Matt 26 LW $637,500 UFA (2018)
INJ Vitale, Joe 31 C $0 UFA (2017)
Cholowski, Dennis 19 D $925,000 RFA (2020)
Sulak, Libor 23 D $833,750 RFA (2019)
Renouf, Daniel 22 D $767,500 RFA (2018)
Hronek, Filip 19 D $728,333 RFA (2020)
Saarijarvi, Vili 20 D $697,500 RFA (2020)
Hicketts, Joe 21 D $635,000 RFA (2019)
Russo, Robbie 24 D $0 RFA (2017)
Machovsky, Matej 23 G $742,500 RFA (2018)
Paterson, Jake

Going by the 40/70 rule: These players should also be exempt as they didn't reach the exposure number, or am I not understanding the rule right?

Ryan Sproul
Tomas Nosek
Mitch Callahan
Martin Frk
Ben Street
Brian Lashoff
Dylan McIlrath
Eric Tangradi

 

[Shoalzie]

Zetterberg
Nielsen
Nyquist
Abdelkader
Mantha
Tatar
Athanasiou

Green
DeKeyser
Jensen

Mrazek


Jensen played his way onto the protection list. The contract extension was a sign of committing to him. He's a bit older than guys like Sproul or Ouellett but I like what I saw from Jensen. The good thing is that you only lose one player in this draft...you can't protect everyone.

 

[Shoalzie]

Going by the 40/70 rule: These players should also be exempt as they didn't reach the exposure number, or am I not understanding the rule right?

Ryan Sproul
Tomas Nosek
Mitch Callahan
Martin Frk
Ben Street
Brian Lashoff
Dylan McIlrath
Eric Tangradi

The 40/70 rule requires teams to expose 2 forwards and 1 defenseman that meet the 40/70 requirement. It forces teams to have to expose a minimum number of veteran players.

Those players you mentioned are still eligible for the draft but they don't fit the 40/70 requirement. They've played enough pro years to be eligible.

 

[Wingsfan 4 life]

Honestly, how many Wings fans even give a crap about the ED? I know I'm not going to lose even a second of sleep over who Vegas picks from us.

 

[Martinez]

Protect green, dekeyser, XO. Pray Jensen doesn't get claimed.
Don't care about the forwards but I'd go with
Z
Frans
Gus
Tatar
Mantha
AA
Nosek

 

[Frk It]

Honestly, how many Wings fans even give a crap about the ED? I know I'm not going to lose even a second of sleep over who Vegas picks from us.

I only wish there were more expansion teams so we could expose more bad contracts.

 

[GBFP]

Sheahen or XO will be Detroit's loss.

 

[mouser]

I would have thought Mantha is....but apparently not

The reason for Mantha not being exempt is due to his having a late birthday. Even though his ELC slid in 2014-15 while playing in Grand Rapids, he was considered age 20 that season so it counted as a Professional Season in the CBA.

One example of the CBA quirks with late birthday players (Sep 16th to Dec 31st).

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

Sheahan will be the one Vegas takes

They won't want an overpaid bum nor a dman with 90 or so no games

Take the big, experienced youngish centre who isn't expensive

 

[avssuc]

Protect green, dekeyser, XO. Pray Jensen doesn't get claimed.
Don't care about the forwards but I'd go with
Z
Frans
Gus
Tatar
Mantha
AA
Nosek

What's the justification for protecting DeKeyser over Jensen? Post Datsyuk, and with a bigger role, DeKeyser essentially showed that he was no better than Jensen, and that the two are roughly interchangeable. If that's the consensus, then contracts come into play, and DeKeyser looks like a total dreg. I'd hope that Las Vegas banks on lost potential, and eats his contract. By the numbers, he's past the age of improvement, and in his prime. If last year was an example (and most wpuld say he was poor all year), then the Wings would be fools to protect him. If they could free up that cap, perhaps they could eat a bad contract for futures sometime next year.

I know most folks are posting on the likelihood here, but there's no way I'd protect DeKeyser, Abby, or Helm.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Sheahen or XO will be Detroit's loss.

It would be smarter to protect xo instead of Jensen. Vegas will have a harder time taking Jensen cause he isn't young

 

[SpookyTsuki]

I only wish there were more expansion teams so we could expose more bad contracts.

Nhl won't last long with 31 teams just weird. But by the time 32 comes in most of the bad contracts aren't that long if we haven't gotten rid of them yet

 

[Mijatovic]

Protect green, dekeyser, XO. Pray Jensen doesn't get claimed.

Why? DK is a average level defence first player on a relatively heavy contract and XO isnt even average level. At least Jensen provides something we cant get from the billions of other mediocre defenceman we have.

 

[LastWordArmy]

Niklas Kronwall

http://lastwordonhockey.com/2017/05/28/detroit-red-wings-protect-not-protect-niklas-kronwall/

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

DeKeyser's contact is just as bad as Abdelkader's contact and Helm's contract. He should be exposed in this draft, if Vegas takes him oh well he isn't very good and we get out of that five million dollar albatross moving forward.

Green, XO and Jensen is who I would protect on our back-end.